Field
The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods of delivering medical fluid to patients, and, in particular, relates to infusion pumps.
Description of the Related Art
Infusion pumps have become commonplace within the healthcare world as a way to precisely administer intravenous (IV) fluids. Use of a pump in place of an elevated fluid container with a simple roller clamp to control the flow of the IV fluid allows more accurate and consistent control of the rate of delivery of the fluid to the patient.
The assembly of tubing, valves, fittings, and needles that connect the fluid container to the patient may be referred to as an “IV set.” IV sets are typically disposable to reduce the risk of infection and contamination. When used with an infusion pump, the IV set includes a segment intended to be manipulated by the pump to cause the fluid to flow at a controlled rate. For a peristaltic type of pump, this segment may be as simple as a length of tubing that is fitted into the pumping compartment. A patient 10 receiving an infusion of medical fluid from a fluid container 14 delivered by a typical IV pump system 12 using an IV set 18 is shown in FIG. 1. A typical IV set 18 is depicted in FIG. 2 and described in more detail in a later section.
One of the challenges of the system depicted in FIG. 1 is that the IV set 18 is manually attached to the fluid container 14 and coupled to a pumping module 20 of IV pump 12 and then the pumping module 20 is programmed through the central control unit 16. It can be seen that the infusion pump 12 in FIG. 1 has three pumping modules 20A, 20B, 20C attached, and some IV pumps may have four or more pumping modules 20. There is therefore a risk that the nurse selects the incorrect pumping module 20 to program through the central control unit 16, resulting in the medical fluid being delivered at an incorrect rate.